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So, I went into this MAD hesitant to listen to Nas in 2020 but this album was better than decent. In fact it was the most listenable album from Nas over the past decade. I know I’ll catch hate for this but “The Cure” is a top 5 Nas track of all time.

LOL top 5 Nas song ever? Nah

It's better than I thought it would be....but it's still probably not going to get much replay value out of me. There's a couple dope cuts though.

Lyric783 wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 25, 2020 2:51 pm

I know I’ll catch hate for this but “The Cure” is a top 5 Nas track of all time.

Lyric783's top 5 Nas songs:

1. Who Killed It?
2. The Makings Of A Perfect Bitch
3. Nas Is Coming
4. Unauthorized Biography Of Rakim
5. The Cure

Career Over Like Mike(NJJ) wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 4:55 am

Lyric783 wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 25, 2020 2:51 pm

I know I’ll catch hate for this but “The Cure” is a top 5 Nas track of all time.

Lyric783's top 5 Nas songs:

1. Who Killed It?
2. The Makings Of A Perfect Bitch
3. Nas Is Coming
4. Unauthorized Biography Of Rakim
5. The Cure

Nah yo...

1) You Owe Me feat. Ginuwine
2) Nastradamus
3) I Can
4) Hero
5) The Cure

Put some respeck on my goddamn name

Underwhelming

If an album being "listenable" is one of the best things you can say about it then that says it all.

Nas reached a point where people are just happy when his albums aren't terrible.

No one will be listening to this regularly by the end of the year.

No clue this even dropped lol.

step one wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 28, 2020 12:05 pm

If an album being "listenable" is one of the best things you can say about it then that says it all.

Nas reached a point where people are just happy when his albums aren't terrible.

No one will be listening to this regularly by the end of the year.

That’s all fair. I’m definitely guilty of accepting a half assed effort from him. But “The Cure” was exactly what I wanted to hear from Nas in 2020.

It's meh at best.

I am biased because I’m a big Nas fan and I always find something I like on all of his albums. I kill him when he does corny shit just like everyone else, but I just try not to be too critical of any Hip Hop artist(s) who are still making music 30 years later, whoever it is.

I like the album. It has a cohesive sound mostly and is sequenced nicely. It just has a good vibe, especially in these wack times we are living through. People calling it classic are insane but It’s a lot better than what people who think it isn’t very good are saying. Hitboy did a nice job on the production for the most part.

KD- Beautiful intro joint I run this shit back like 5 times every time I hear it. That beat and the way he’s flowing is buttery.

Blue Benz- Dope.. Nothing else to say. If you think anything else you’re buggin.

Car 85 – Smooth joint with Nas on his storytelling/nostalgic shit. Def need to be from NYC in that era to fully appreciate but most of it is a universal topic. But us in NYC from that era know what he is talking about with car services taking you to the weed spot or to a girl’s crib etc; It really was a thing to find a good driver and try to always request him.

Ultra Black- A song for the times. It’s a one off single and skipped at this point but it’s a cool song. I respect what he did and if I was Black it would be an anthem.

27 Summers- Only complaint on this is it’s too short. You may not like Nas over these type of beats but he rides it nice and I like the dark atmosphere. Wish he would have really went in with a crazy verse though.

Replace Me – I actually have warmed up to this one but I’m not a Big Sean fan so this track is whatever to me. Nothing special but I do like the beat and the hook. That “ only thing worse than being alone is wishing you were” line hit everyone who ever felt like that in a relationship. I remember that feeling back in the day..

Til The War is Won – I’m sure the purists hate it but I love this joint.

All Bad- Nas and Anderson.. love this joint

The Definition- Ehh, whatever, don’t hate it but certainly indifferent. Not jumping to skip it every time but also don’t particularly care if I ever hear this song again.

Full Circle- Not what I expected from a Firm reunion subject wise but hey, glad they are all on a track again. It’s def dope and would be very interested in hearing more Firm shit. Foxy kind of annoying but AZ, Mega and Nas killed it and Dre was nice at the end.

10 Points – Ehh that “ I started saying Peace King on my song The Flyest” ruins it. Just sounds corny and lazy. He’s spitting some jewels here and there and the beat is dope but Nas did not execute properly on this. Should have re-worked, it had so much potential but he didn't deliver.

The Cure- Not a top 5 Nas song but shit is really dope. If you complain about this song just stop listening to Nas because you’re never gonna be happy.

Spicy – Took me a couple of listens to get into it, but it really is a perfect “bonus” song. If clubs and partying were going on in NY like normal this would be a peak time staple in every DJ’s set for the next few months.


Album is good, not great. It certainly isn’t anywhere as good as people make it out to be and certainly isn’t as bad as some people have said. 3.5 mic to me.

just listening to The Cure (only song I've heard off this so far). Its not bad but if if someone called it dull they wouldn't be far off. I mean, its just ended and I can barely remember it. Tracks with no drums are the fucking worst, even if in this case it was just the first 90 seconds.

I think the thing is he doesn't have anything new to say and he's basically been rewriting variations of the same 3 or 4 songs for the last 15 years.

Went into this album with no expectations and was not disappointed. I kind of like the beat on Blue Benz and possibly AZ's verse on Full Circle, and that's the kindest I can be about this album. At this rate, Nas is firmly in the 'one hot song every ten year average' territory. Can't wait to hear something that resembles 'Reach Out' somewhere in 2027.

And I love Illmatic. Like large parts of The Firm and It Was Written. A few songs on later releases, including Lost Tapes, up to God's Son. A few songs after that album. His early to mid 90's demos. A slew of good to great guest verses. I just can't defend any album after that. He's become incredibly dull and I have a hard time stomaching fans who for some reason keep eating up every word he puts on record as being sent from the next coming of jesus. Especially when there is still so much rap that's interesting, exciting, fun, provocative, what have you.

This album is a disappointment overall. I liked 6 songs… Car 85, Ultra Black, All Bad, Full Circle, 10 Points & The Cure. There’s 4 straight up trash joints… 27 Summers, Replace Me, Til The War Is Won & Spicy. King’s Disease is OK. Blue Benz is OK, but not really feelin it. And not feelin The Definition at all.

That’s 6 yes, 6 no and 1 neutral. Disappointment! It’s not an album I will ever look to pull out. Some of the features are straight fuckin GARBAGE!! The fuck is wrong with Nas?! And regarding those 4 trash joints, what the fuck was Nas thinking with those beats?!?!?!!! smh

Yohan wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 07, 2020 4:10 am

And I love Illmatic. Like large parts of The Firm and It Was Written. A few songs on later releases, including Lost Tapes, up to God's Son. A few songs after that album. His early to mid 90's demos. A slew of good to great guest verses. I just can't defend any album after that. He's become incredibly dull and I have a hard time stomaching fans who for some reason keep eating up every word he puts on record as being sent from the next coming of jesus. Especially when there is still so much rap that's interesting, exciting, fun, provocative, what have you.

Agreed 100%!! And yea, I like songs on pretty much every album, but as albums, I really only like maybe 4 of them (Illmatic, It Was Written, The Firm & Lost Tapes). I cannot listen to any other Nas album in full without skipping more then half the tracks. Maybe God's Son is the closest to another Nas album I can listen to a lot of the way through.

Yeah even tried this while drinking/buzzed, still meh @ best.

Not terrible, just instantly forgettable. Can't see myself ever revisiting. Nas is a good rapper but not an interesting person.

Wack

I gotta admit I've developed a fear of listening to some of the vets nowadays and I sometimes go years before I check the album they dropped. For me it's been that way for about the past decade or so. I will check the iTunes preview of this album today just to see for myself what's going on.

Career Over Like Mike(NJJ) wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 26, 2020 4:55 am

[quote=Lyric783 post_id=2864570 time=<a href="tel:1598381494">1598381494</a> user_id=898]I know I’ll catch hate for this but “The Cure” is a top 5 Nas track of all time.

Lyric783's top 5 Nas songs:

1. Who Killed It?
2. The Makings Of A Perfect Bitch
3. Nas Is Coming
4. Unauthorized Biography Of Rakim
5. The Cure
[/quote]


A few surprisingly great tracks on this. I play 27 Summers, Full Circle and the Don Toliver feature a lot.

Nas is good, Hit Boy is good, but their sounds don't compliment each other. How hard is it for Nas to find one of the 1,000s of dope boom bap producers and work with them...
I liked Ultra Black and nothing else

hit boy and nas is not a bad combo.

the firm joint hasn't really grown on me sad to say.

WOW! blast from the past.

What's the world coming to when this album doesn't even bring opinionz from the 's Nas fanboy Irish contingent?